KWIRS targets N38 billion in tax collection

The Executive Chairman of Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Dr Muritala Awodun has disclosed the readiness of his organisation to meet up with the target of N38 billion being the estimated Internally Generated Revenue projection for the state in the 2018 fiscal year.

Awodun premised his confidence on the increasing awareness on tax payment by the people of Kwara who at the inception of the KWIRS in the year 2015 paid as taxes, N5billion but had same increased to N19billion by the year 2017.
He said the people of the state, because of the taxes they pay, has now put the state government on its toes towards churning out to them true dividends of democracy.

Awodun, stated this recently in Ilorin the state’s capital while briefing reporters on the activities of his agency in the last two years.

Awodun said there had been a drastic improvement in payment of taxes by people of the state since the agency came on board in 2015 and that this made people’s monitoring of government’s programmes to be more critical.
He said more people are paying the Personal Income Tax of N1,500 per annum by those in the informal sector and N12,000 per annum by those in the formal sector.

Awodun who described the tax as the least in the country said as moderate as it is it makes the people to ask questions about how government manages the state resources.

The KWIRS boss noted that the agency, in performing its task, had been acting as an intermediary between the people and the government.

He explained that the KWIRS had ensured that people perform their obligation of paying tax and on the other hand encouraged the government to ensure the people feel the impact of the revenue generated from them.

Awodun said the improved IGR of the state had enabled the government to embark on massive driving of
infrastructural projects just as it has also enabled the government to substantially devote federal allocation to payment of salary of workers.

The KWIRS boss who said the agency had been able to improve revenue from tax from about N5b it used to be before 2015 to about N19b in 2017 restated that the revenue proposed to collect this year as indicated in the state budget is N38b.